4 replies to this topic

[davelew]

My recommendation: Scottish ale yeast. I have limited experience with smoked beers (N=2) but in both cases the smokiness faded rapidly, and after a couple of months was maybe half strength. Because of that, I would want to drink it young, and using an ale yeast instead of a lager yeast will help that.

[dmtaylor]

Either yeast will make good beer, obviously, but traditionally, and in my humble opinion, the lager yeast might be the better way to go.I would also jack up the base malt to use closer to 100% smoked malt. No need to fear the smoke. If you are afraid, then just bump it up to 4 pounds or something. But I assure you, don't worry, it will be plenty drinkable. And then, with the greater smoked malt and lager yeast, you should be able to call this beer a true rauchbier.Otherwise, it might not have a lot of smoke, and the perceptions of smokiness will be confused between your smoked malt versus any peat-like Scottish smokiness from the yeast strain. Which brings me to my next point...The smoky character you get from wood-smoked malt is entirely different from that of peat-smoked malt; and Scottish ale yeast is said to give a slight mellow smokiness more similar to the peat smoke, NOT to wood-smoked malt.So... you need to figure out what you are going for -- complex smokiness (in general), for which you could use the Scottish yeast strain, versus a traditional rauchbier, which really requires a lager strain and more of the smoked malt. That decision, of course, is entirely up to you.

[Fatman]

Inspired by Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest, I just bought a sack of Munich, and decided to do my annual smoked ale as a Aecht Schlenkerla style smoked Marzen. Additionally, I just spent most of my summer weekends building a custom version of the Big Baby smoker:https://www.thesmokering.com/pits/metalpit/bigbaby/default.jspSo, I'm smoking my own malt too - I did up 4 pounds of Pils malt over a hot hickory smoke for 60 minutes, stirred and lightly sparyed with water.Well, it may have been a little too hot - in part because I threw dinner - turkey wings and drums - in too, and I smoked at about 275 in order to get the proper internal temp for the poultry. The end result is that my Smoked Pils malt is decently kilned too - I'd estimate about 40L. Despite what the Zymurgy article on smoking your own malt says, the malt is not throwing an insane amount of aroma - it's smoky, but not really any stronger than Weyerman's Beechwood smoked malt, which I've used up to 60% in my smoked ale and liked it. (I love smoke, it's hard to oversmoke a beer for my taste)Soooo.... What about this recipe? I was thinking CaraMunich originally, but am leaning towards leaving it out because of the kilning of the smoked malt:Smoked Marzen (6 Gal):6.5 lbs. Munich4 lbs. Smoked Pilsner 40L2 oz. U.S. Hallertau (4.5 AA) @ 60 minO.G. 1.052 (80% eff.)Mash @ 148IBU 27WLP802What do y'all think?Also the Turkey was AMAZING - here's a recipe:2 Wings, 2 DrumsBrine for 2 hours in fridge (1/2 c. of Kosher salt per quart of water)Rub with 1/2 c. Brown Sugar, 1/4 c. Kosher Salt, 1 tsp. garlic powder, 1 tsp. onion powder, 1/2 tsp. sageSmoke over natural charcoal & hickory chunks for 2 hrs @ 275Oven @ 375 for 20 min until internal temp hits 175I would have smoked all the way, but it was getting late, next time I will alot 3 hours for the smoke (doesn't make too much difference - meat stops taking smoke flavor at around 120 deg)